MUSEUMS; Art Studies Without the Homework

By BENJAMIN GENOCCHIO

Published: May 21, 2006

COLLEGE campuses can be good neighbors. At their best they are cultural beacons in the suburbs, a place where the arts flourish in communities that otherwise may not be able to support them.

The visual arts are a prime example. There are more than two dozen galleries and museums tucked away on campuses in the New York suburbs. They are a varied lot, characterized partly by the wealth of the school and the generosity of alumni and partly by the kind of art they display.

But they also have some things in common. They typically charge no admission, and they are open not only to students but also to canny suburban art lovers. In a pay-as-you-go society, that's a real boon.

My favorite spaces are some of the smaller, lesser known galleries, where you'll often find terrific project-based exhibitions by younger contemporary artists, or thoughtful historical shows. These places often anticipate broader art trends.

Since some campus museums close for the summer or reduce hours, it is always best to call ahead.

Westchester

COLLEGE OF NEW ROCHELLE -- The aptly named Castle Gallery is in Leland Castle, a 19th-century Victorian building that looks a bit like something out of ''Wuthering Heights.'' The gallery, celebrating its 25th anniversary, presents one of the most ambitious and liveliest campus exhibition programs in the metropolitan region, with a yearly roster of shows combining local and city artists.

Among its biggest draws is the Westchester Biennial, one of the few recurrent visual arts exhibitions devoted exclusively to Westchester artists. Currently on view in the galleries through June 18, the fifth biennial exhibition features artwork by more than two dozen local painters, photographers, ceramicists and sculptors. Painting dominates, with excellent contributions by Gail V. Biederman, Berenice Pliskin and Leslie Lew, among others.

BARD COLLEGE -- Established in 1992, the Center for Curatorial Studies Museum boasts a slick 1,600-square-foot gallery where it presents exhibitions of experimental contemporary art. Currently given over to graduate-thesis exhibitions by students pursuing master's degrees in curatorial studies, from June 24 to Sept. 10 it will be host to the show ''Uncertain States of America: American Art in the 3rd Millennium.''

The exhibition surveys an emerging generation of American artists whose source material often derives from the mass media and earlier art historical sources. More than 40 artists are represented in the exhibition, with most of them in their early to mid-30's.

The center is also expanding, with construction under way on a 1,700-square-foot art gallery adjacent to the existing building.

Long Island

HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY -- The solid Hofstra Museum is made up of three independent galleries, the largest of which is the Emily Lowe Gallery, in a charming old building shared with the arts faculty. It presents first-rate shows of historical, modern and contemporary art, like a recent traveling exhibition from the Smithsonian Institution of Robert Rauschenberg's innovative multiples, prints and posters.

The Emily Lowe Gallery is undergoing renovation, but at another gallery in the nearby Joan and Donald E. Axinn Library, the museum is presenting a topical survey of the history of Hispanic culture on Long Island through Aug. 18. Some of the display material, which includes musical instruments, clothing and historic photographs, belongs to the university, but much is on loan for the first time from members of the Hispanic community.

C. W. POST CAMPUS, LONG ISLAND UNIVERSITY -- The Hillwood Art Museum here contains several galleries displaying an astonishing collection of African and pre-Columbian art. Some of it was given to the museum over the years, while the rest of it came from the now-defunct Fine Arts Museum of Long Island. The upshot is an unexpected trove of antiquities.

The layout is tighter than you may expect for the display of valuable objects of this kind, but there are many lovely things here, including an eye-popping early 20th-century Egungun mask by the Yoruba people of Nigeria; made out of slivers of discarded cloth, the mask, which resembles a giant poncho, was used in an annual ceremony marking the unity of family and community.

The museum also has an area dedicated to changing exhibitions of contemporary art. Here is Ilya Bolotowsky's constructivist two-panel ''Southampton Mural'' (1968), which was transferred to the museum from the university's Southampton College before that campus was sold. From June 12 to July 12 Barbara Andrus will display a new abstract site-specific installation made of natural materials like twigs and sticks.

Connecticut

ST. JOSEPH COLLEGE -- One of the liveliest campus museums in the state, the St. Joseph College Art Gallery houses a remarkable collection of more than 1,700 objects, with its core holdings in 19th- and early 20th-century American painting and drawing. In addition to a display of the permanent collection, the gallery presents regular loan exhibitions of historical, modern and contemporary art.